Dr. Andrew M. Baker will be the program speaker at the Thursday, March 29, Rotary Club of Edina meeting. Baker is Chief Medical Examiner for Hennepin County. He will speak about "The Current and Future State of the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office." 
Dr. Andrew Baker is a Mason City, Iowa, native; a 1988 graduate of the University of Iowa; and a 1992 graduate of the University of Iowa College of Medicine. He completed his residency in pathology at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and completed a year of specialized training in forensic pathology in Minneapolis.
 
He is board-certified in anatomic and clinical pathology, with subspecialty certification in forensic pathology. He is a fellow of the College of American Pathologists (CAP), and serves on the CAP Forensic Pathology Committee. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, having served as the Chair of the Academy’s Pathology/Biology section and currently serving on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee. He is a fellow of the National Association of Medical Examiners, and previously served as the President and Chair of the Board of Directors of that organization.
 
A distinguished graduate of the U.S. Air Force’s Commissioned Officer Training program, Dr. Baker began active duty in the medical corps of the USAF in 1998. Events that shaped his military years included work in Kosovo for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, investigation of graves along the United States-Mexican border, and identification and autopsy of victims of the terrorist attack on the U.S.S. Cole. Dr. Baker also served as a consulting pathologist to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service’s Cold Case Homicide unit.
 
Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Dr. Baker’s unit was given responsibility for the identification and autopsy of the victims and perpetrators of the American Airlines flight 77 crash into the Pentagon. Dr. Baker’s military awards include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal,
the Joint Service Commendation Medal, and the Joint Meritorious Unit Award.
 
Dr. Baker’s publications range from analysis of combat casualties of U.S. forces in Somalia to drug intoxications in infants and abusive injuries of children. He has served as a guest lecturer at the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s School, the Naval Justice School, The University of Minnesota Law School, Hamline Law School, Harvard Law School, the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service (Toronto), and the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (Sydney).

Dr. Baker began practicing as a full-time forensic pathologist with the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office in Minneapolis in 2002. He was appointed to the position of Chief Medical Examiner for Hennepin County in 2004, and was reappointed in 2008, 2012 and 2016. In 2013, Dr. Baker’s office expanded to provide all medical examiner services to Dakota and Scott Counties in the metropolitan Twin Cities area.
 
Dr. Baker also holds appointments at the Hennepin County Medical Center and the University of Minnesota. He serves as the Treasurer for the Minnesota Coroners’ and Medical Examiners’ Association and has previously served on the Board of Directors of the Innocence Project of Minnesota.
 
Dr. Baker has served as a medical officer with the Region V Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team (DMORT), deploying to Louisiana in 2005 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Dr. Baker was previously on the Forensic Pathology Test Development Advisory Committee for the American Board of
Pathology and the Forensic Science Standards Board of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Dr. Baker’s forensic interests include management of mass fatalities, the investigation of fatal child abuse, and investigation of sudden deaths in children and young adults. His less morbid interests include public school science education, reading, scouting, musical theater and Minnesota Lynx basketball.
 
He is an exercise enthusiast and a three-time qualifier for the Boston Marathon. In 2013 he completed his first (and almost certainly only) Ironman triathlon.
 
Dr. Baker is happily married to a strong woman, with whom he raised three above-average children and continues to raise one painfully average rescue dog.